A Writer's Journeyhttps://frootbat31.wordpress.com
Resources for the writing inclined
Wed, 02 Jan 2019 02:23:51 +0000 en
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wordpress/kdfOhttps://feedburner.google.comWhat I’m Writinghttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wordpress/kdfO/~3/J1k9xnvoOf8/
https://frootbat31.wordpress.com/2018/08/08/what-im-writing/#respondWed, 08 Aug 2018 16:49:33 +0000http://frootbat31.wordpress.com/?p=2668Continue reading "What I’m Writing"]]>It’s been ages since I blogged. This was due to not writing and dealing with the guilt that comes it. After all, how can I be a writer if I’m not wriitng?

The ideas keep coming though. As long as I can remember stories ran like movies in my head. Scenes and characters play out whenver I do some mundane chores, or drive the car, or listen to music. The stories keep bubbling up.

Franz Kafka once said “A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity”, which is why you should write no matter what. The writer in me, however, seems to fear failure enough to embrace that insanity of not writing.

This year has been stressful with being the primary caretaker of my parents as they go through the aging and health issues that come with it. This means tons of anxiety, tips to doctors, juggling a schedule, while my son graduates high school, and ‘real life’ keeps interferring with the writing life.

My cat died of cancer so that was weeks of caring for him with medicine, trying to get him to eat, and worry incessently about making ‘the decision’. You know what I mean if you own a cat or dog, that moment where you decide it’s time to put an end of suffering. No amount of justifying his age (15 years old) made the decision any easier.

My writer’s meetup group is also publishing this year. Our theme is science fiction. Normally, that’s the genre I love. This time, finding the idea for a short story took forever. I still waffle if I should stick with it or find something else, but I’m taking it as an exercise of ‘just do it’ and see what happens.

So what am I writing? I’m trying to get back into blogging regularly. To stop worrying about content and just share posts I’d like to read. That also goes for fiction. I work on various projects, but this week’s focus is on a sci-fic short story involving A.I., space pirates, and program vs humanity.

I’ll post an excerpt soon.

My theme this month is ‘just do it’ and try to get things done regardless of stress, anxiety, worry, lack of sleep, sorrow, etc. Just write, let the words flow, see where it leads.

]]>https://frootbat31.wordpress.com/2018/08/08/what-im-writing/feed/0frootbat31Old typewriter painted.jpghttps://frootbat31.wordpress.com/2018/08/08/what-im-writing/Cover Design by Chris Foxhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wordpress/kdfO/~3/wCXKSY7xlik/
https://frootbat31.wordpress.com/2018/06/21/cover-design-by-chris-fox/#respondThu, 21 Jun 2018 14:06:09 +0000http://frootbat31.wordpress.com/?p=2665I found Chris Fox’s YouTube channel that offers many interesting topics on the subject of writing and publishing. Chris Fox fiction and non-fiction and you can find his books at https://chrisfoxwrites.com.

This year was going to be the year of my becoming a prolific writer. I was to blog regularly, to write fiction as well as non-fiction, and to embrace the life of an author that verbs her Life.

Well, that didn’t happen.

Mostly, the issue was Life happened…over and over. My mother ended up in the emergency room, then a month stay in the hospital and a nursing home. My father was going to get cochlear implants to help his deafness, and I volunteered to drive down to Washington D.C. That ended up a convoluted and much bigger chore than I anticipated. Three more visits and road trips, my father ended up leaving without me, drove himself, got lost, and led to overwhelming stress for me. My time was drawn in many directions with my anxiety taking over whatever place I intended my muse to reside.

My muse is not happy with me at all. Who could blame her, right? I ignored ‘self-care’ and found myself wallowing in self-pity, so now that I’m at the end of stresses (at least, I hope I am), I wanted to post a few things I learned from the experience.

1. Self-care is important. Stress, anxiety, and depression can kill creativity. It sucks out all motivation. This is why self-care is vital to a budding author. How to do self-care?

Ask for help. There is no shame in asking others to help. This can be taking on a few of your responsibilities, or lending a shoulder to cry on. Help can be words of encouragement or lettings others take care of your for a while.

Pamper yourself. My pampering included a nap or bought myself a new video game (for me, games are incredibly cathartic to abate depression and stress), and treating myself to chocolate now and then. It included a hot bath, a moment to myself, treats, and once my mother was home from the hospital, telling her I needed a week off of helping her to recharge.

2. Write about it! Some authors write about experiences they endured. Stephen King once saw a dead body, which ended up in his short story “The Body”. Jack London took many of his experiences and incorporated them into his novels and short stories of the Yukon territory. John Green wrote from his experiences with anxiety and obsessive thoughts in Turtles All the Way Down.

Personally, I don’t like writing about things that bother me at the time, but I can see writing at it later could be emotionally releasing.Even journaling offers therapy to work out emotions and provide clarity to your feelings. Sometimes I write to myself, letting myself to write back to offer insight and comfort as if I were a best friend. It helps.

May begins a new month, so I plan on writing and adopting the phrase ‘do it anyway’.

So does Life interrupt your writing goals? What do you do to fix it? Write in comments or share ideas.

]]>https://frootbat31.wordpress.com/2018/04/30/self-care-and-not-writing/feed/0IMG_1630frootbat31https://frootbat31.wordpress.com/2018/04/30/self-care-and-not-writing/2018 Writing Goalshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wordpress/kdfO/~3/tb37-L-XMYM/
https://frootbat31.wordpress.com/2018/01/17/2018-writing-goals/#respondWed, 17 Jan 2018 17:56:49 +0000http://frootbat31.wordpress.com/?p=2651Continue reading "2018 Writing Goals"]]>We’re finally in the 2018 year and I feel more prepared than previous years. I have goals setup, broken down into quarterly goals, along with deadlines and hope that I’ll find this year to productive as well as successful.

I broke down my goals to work in three month increments. This way, I break goals down to measurable chunks. After each quarter, I sit down and revise/review goals to see which ones to keep or even remove. Some goals I’ll toss because they’re not practical at this time, or I didn’t really want the goal anyway. Other goals might require more time, more effort, or even help to achieve.

I also recognize that any goal or new habit will take time (and even setbacks) to finally reach the final victory. It took me almost two years to stop biting my fingernails because I’d end up biting them. I’d then start again. I kept doing this, finding new habits to help along the way. I’d keep finding setbacks. I incorporated some new things, and now I have long fingernails. Try and try again, you’ll get to where you want to go

My writing goals include;

Make writing a habit. This should be done as easily as I sip my morning coffee. Not that I do much writing in the mornings. I’m not a morning person. I prefer evenings. It’s quiet, no phone ringing, no noise in our little town, the cat is fed, husband is sleeping, and I get the peace and quiet I need to write.

Redesign my previous published works. I want to redo the covers, but update the interiors with some updated information. I then want to follow through with a marketing plan. The anthology series I want to redesign the covers so they can be a set.

Write prolifically. I hope to write regularly and publish what I write both fiction and non fiction. I have book outlines made, plots prepared. Now I just need that uninterrupted time block to get into the groove of writing. I made a do not disturb sign to hang on the doorknob as well.

Blog regularly. This means posts should be published regularly and along a schedule. I will blend the topics and printables that my writer’s group covers in their topics/workshops. I hope to offer online workshops as well to subscribers.

Use a standing desk. As I age (I turned 50 last October) I grow ever more concerned for my health. This means diet, of course, but also less sitting around. I bought a tray desk that works perfect as a standing desk but I can also use in bed, sitting on the couch, etc. I’m standing now as I type and it’s comfortable. I found the tray desk more solid than I thought, with enough room for laptop and mouse. It includes a small drawer you can store things in like pens and a small notebook. http://amzn.to/2rhocVB

There are more resolutions but I wanted to share only the writing-related goals. with this blog.

Want to share your goals? Post in comments. I’d love to hear how others intend on reaching their goals.

]]>https://frootbat31.wordpress.com/2018/01/17/2018-writing-goals/feed/0frootbat312018 writing goalshttps://frootbat31.wordpress.com/2018/01/17/2018-writing-goals/Thoughts on Editing for Self Published Authorshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wordpress/kdfO/~3/sZzMtrH3qj8/
https://frootbat31.wordpress.com/2017/11/06/thoughts-on-editing-for-self-published-authors/#respondTue, 07 Nov 2017 03:04:00 +0000http://frootbat31.wordpress.com/?p=2645Continue reading "Thoughts on Editing for Self Published Authors"]]>Within my writer’s group, we discuss methods of editing for self-published authors. This is a challenge for those wishing to keep costs low, but there are a few things I can offer to help in the process:

Understand the different types of editing. Not all editors are the same.

Learn how to edit. You must remember, as a writing, words, sentences, paragraphs, storylines, character development…all are considered your craft. If you don’t’ know it- learn it. With the Internet, you can find plenty of resources to master the craft of writing, so take some courses, write, write some more, read, read some more, and understand that the process can take a while, but worth it.

Use programs. Although programs are stupid, you can still catch some errors, misspellings, and punctuation issues. It won’t catch homonyms. For instance, conscious or conscience sound similar but used in sentences to mean different things. But programs can help catch things like finding passive voice, weak verbs, punctuation, and other elements of crafting a story.

Find an editor you can afford. I would suggest looking at colleges for English Majors who want more practice with editing, or check sites like Fiverr.com to hire someone to look at your manuscript. Other options include asking other self-published authors if they found an editor, and check how much for cost and is it worth it?